It's a nice counter-move to the investors who stopped funding for now because startups got "uppity" with their unjustified valuations and high cap/no discount convertible note demands.

Sidenote: Things to put at the top of guest or aggregated posts: byline and date.

It's a brilliant way for Yuri to invest $5M in a portfolio of companies that others are selecting and are almost certain to get investment from top-tier Silicon Valley angels and VC firms -- which gives him relationships with everybody. As you say, cheap at the price. Good article.

Having Yuri involved is also brilliant in that it will allow super early stage startups to think globally from the start, and while they may not focus on global markets when they design v1.0 of their products and services, they will at least be considering global market implications for how they build their products.